Kathy Young and Latchkey Mystery by Margaret Goff Clark

In Who Stole Kathy Young?, Meg is walking down the road when she sees her best friend, Kathy, abducted right in front of her!  Meg is horrified and runs to Kathy's house to tell her father.

Meg is worried about Kathy, who is deaf.  The van used for the abduction is recovered, and Meg finds the power pack for Kathy's hearing aid inside the van.  Kathy can hear nothing, rendering her helpless.  With few clues, Meg and her friend, Julian, ask a private investigator to help them find Kathy.

It was fun trying to guess the culprit as I read this book.

The story is very good to excellent.

In The Latchkey Mystery, burglars are breaking into houses in Minda's neighborhood.  Minda forms a neighborhood watch group with her school friends who live in the same neighborhood.  They call themselves the Ferrets.

The Ferrets devise various methods to keep an eye on the neighborhood.  Each Ferret keeps a list of suspects and writes down anything suspicious that they see.

This is a very good book.

Sebastian Island and Flooded Museum by Margaret Goff Clark

In Mystery of Sebastian Island, Dena Foster is on her way home from boarding school to Sebastian Island.  During the trip, Dena meets Guy, who is also on his way to the island. Guy's bag looks just like another man's bag, and Dena sees the other man take Guy's bag. Guy refuses to believe Dena, even though Dena knows that the wrong bag was taken. Dena little suspects that the bag mix-up is a clue to a dangerous mystery.

This book is a good mystery.  I kept wondering about certain characters and whether they were in with the villains or not.

The story becomes very suspenseful towards end.  This is a very good book.

A quote from page 80 is amusing.  Dena looks over the books in her room to see if she can find one for Mrs. Kaufman, who doesn't have enough reading material.  Dena reflects, "It was a sure thing that Mrs. Kaufman would be long past Nancy Drew."  I don't know about that.  It seems that many of us are still stuck on Nancy Drew.

In Mystery in the Flooded Museum, Susan begins volunteering for the summer at Fort Pitt Museum.  A valuable wampum that has just been placed on exhibit is stolen.  Susan is shocked to discover that she is a suspect, since one of her belongings was found near the exhibit.  Susan hunts for clues while the employees remove all of the exhibits due to a flood warning.

I did not like this book.  Nothing about it interested me.  This is my least favorite book by Margaret Goff Clark.

Mystery Horse and Death at Their Heels by Margaret Goff Clark

In Mystery Horse, Jennie Longboat lives on the Tuscarora Reservation.  Miranda Young is staying with Jennie, and Miranda frequently disappears.  Tonight, Miranda has disappeared again, and Jennie heads up the road looking for her.  After a time, Miranda appears, her face flushed and hair tangled. Miranda claims to have been asleep on the porch.  Jennie knows something is up, but Miranda isn't talking.

The girls hear a horse that night, and Miranda claims that the horse is a ghost horse.  Jennie is certain that the horse was real, but Miranda insists that she saw a ghost horse in the sky. Miranda's story causes problems, because the women of the tribe decide that Miranda's vision is a bad omen and that they will have to appoint another man as chief.  Jennie tries to get proof that the horse was real.

This book opens at night, which creates a suspenseful atmosphere.  I was surprised at the reveal of the culprit.

I read this book very quickly.  It is excellent and very engaging.

In Death at Their Heels, Rick receives a phone call that sets him on edge.  He asks his stepbrother, Denny, to go with him on a camping trip.  Rick insists that they leave that night and that they tell nobody.  Unknown to Rick, Denny leaves a note in the kitchen telling Aunt Wilma their destination.

Once the boys arrive in Algonquin Park in Canada, Denny learns that Rick is running from a young man who is trying to kill him. Rick learns about the note and is furious. Soon, it becomes apparent that Rick's enemy has learned the boys' destination, putting them on the run once again.

Rick makes extremely stupid decisions.  He is stricken by fear, so this is why, but I still had a problem with it.  After Rick realizes that his enemy knows they are in the park, he should have left the park with Denny.  But no!  The boys stay in the park so that they can be found.  Of course, there wouldn't have been a story if Rick had behaved logically.

Adirondack Mountain Mystery and Missing Stamps by Margaret Goff Clark

In Adirondack Mountain Mystery, Andy visits his cousins in the Adirondacks.  Andy's vacation is at risk of being spoiled due to a recent bank robbery.  The robbers were last seen in the Adirondacks, so Andy's cousin Midge orders the children to stay at the house and not explore the nearby countryside.  Andy spots evidence of someone prowling around in the immediate area, so he hopes to help get the robbers captured so that he can enjoy the rest of his vacation.

This book is good, but it is also one of Margaret Goff Clark's books that I do not like as much as the rest of her books.  I do not find it that compelling.

In Mystery of the Missing Stamps, Mark Baxter, his mother, and his stepfather have just moved to the resort that his stepfather manages.  Mark is having trouble adjusting to his new life, but he has made one friend, Ben. A tourist's valuable stamps are stolen, and Ben becomes the primary suspect.  All clues point to Ben, and it is not until much later that Mark realizes that someone is framing Ben for the theft.

On pages 10 and 11, the 1856 British Guiana one-cent stamp is mentioned and said to be worth $100,000.  I always like to check on the current value of valuable items so see how much the value has increased.  That stamp is now worth $9.5 million.

This is an excellent book.  It's a great mystery that keeps the reader guessing about the identity of the culprit.

Marble Zoo and Star Lake by Margaret Goff Clark

In Mystery of the Marble Zoo, Jill and her sister, Carol, arrive at the Chapman place at night to spend the weekend sorting through Uncle Leon's belongings in preparation for selling them.  Jill wishes that the family could keep Uncle Leon's house, but they can't afford it.  Just before Uncle Leon died, he told Jill that he has a treasure, but he was unable to give her any details.  As Jill begins her search for clues, she notices that the contents of a drawer disappear.  Someone is prowling in the house, and Jill realizes that someone else is searching for the treasure.

My copy of this book was signed by Margaret Goff Clark.  It appears that she commonly signed books so it is not too unusual to find inscribed books.  Even so, having one is quite special.

This is such an excellent book.  By opening the book at night with a prowler on the Chapman property, Clark sets the stage for a highly suspenseful story.  I was enthralled from start to finish.

In Mystery at Star Lake, Jeff joins his brother, Hal, at the family's cabin in the Canadian woods.  Hal plans to build an addition to the cabin, and Jeff plans to help.  Hal initially changes his mind about Jeff staying at the cabin after a stone is thrown into the cabin with a warning note attached.  The note reads, "Get out!"

Jeff convinces Hal to let him stay.  The brothers receive another warning, and someone tries to blow up the cabin!  Can Jeff find the culprit before someone gets hurt?

For whatever reason, this book did not grab me.  I enjoyed it, but it is in the group of books by Margaret Goff Clark that I enjoyed less than her other books.

Seneca Hill and Buried Indian Mask by Margaret Goff Clark

In The Mystery of Seneca Hill, the Burnham family may lose its motel.  Their business has dropped, and funds are low.  One night, Doug sees a mysterious light on Seneca Hill.  When the children investigate, they discover that someone has been digging on the hill. Through clever deduction, the children realize that an old fort might have once been on the hill, and if they can provide proof, the family might be able to keep their property.

I had trouble getting into the book at first because I could not figure out where the motel, the neighbor's house, the river, the hill, and the road all were with respect to each other.  A map would have helped greatly.  I was so confused.

The story is overall good, but it is not very suspenseful.  This is one of my least favorite books by Margaret Goff Clark.

In The Mystery of the Buried Indian Mask, Julie works on an archaeological dig as her summer job.  Artifacts begin to disappear, and Julie works on finding the culprit.

The author does a good job with misdirection, making several people appear to be suspicious.  I was intrigued with the plot as I tried to figure out the true identity of the culprit.

This book is more for older children since it has a hint of romance, and two people get knocked out.

This is an excellent book which is very suspenseful.